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"  Yesterday at Daytona International Speedway, a blue, purple, and red blur screamed past the pits. At speed, you&amp;#039;d be hard-pressed to relate this squat, bulbous shape to a stock BMW Z4, but that&amp;#039;s exactly the point: this newly unveiled Z4 GTE will battle the big boys over ten ALMS races this season, and just might silence critics who dismiss the Z4 as a hairdresser&amp;#039;s car. Forget everything you associate with a stock Z4: run by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and sponsored by Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resorts, this curvaceous Z4 GTE packs an M3-sourced 4.4-liter V8 churning a restricted 480 hp and 480 nM of torque. A sequential 6-speed transmission drives power to massive rear Michelins, and the whole package weighs in at only 2,744 lbs, per the ACO rulebook. The specimen you see here was developed in Munich over a six week period before it was broken down, shipped, and reassembled at RLL headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, just prior to its Daytona debut. Incidentally, while it&amp;#039;s developed over the next month preceding the series opener in Sebring, its running mate is being tested in Spain.  Can this bulked-up pipsqueak compete with firebreathers like SRT Vipers, Corvette ZR1s, and Ferrari 458s? BMW certainly hopes so, especially following the success of its predecessor, the E92 M3 GT which claimed seven wins and five titles over four years. As with all things racing, future success will depend on BMW&amp;#039;s ability to adapt to ALMS regulations (which, unlike FIA&amp;#039;s GT3 class, don&amp;#039;t allow ABS or DSC and rely on more heavily regulated rules about aerodynamics)-- not to mention a healthy dose of luck. But as an exercise in divorcing a production car from image problems, it&amp;#039;s safe to say the Z4 GTE has already won. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a8659/bmw-z4-gte-almost-ready-to-swim-with-sharks/>